Market Surveillance (EU AI Act)

Art. 70 et seq. — national AI supervision

26 April 2026 · Category: EU AI Act · Compliance-Kit

TL;DR

Market surveillance authorities under Art. 70 et seq. of the EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) are the national authorities that enforce AI compliance. Compared with conventional market surveillance, they have extended powers (Art. 74).

What is market surveillance under the EU AI Act?

Powers (Art. 74):

Access to documentation and to training, validation and testing data sets (Art. 74(12)), to the source code only upon a reasoned request (Art. 74(13))
On-site inspections
Ordering corrective measures
Imposing a market ban
Imposing fines (Art. 99: up to EUR 35 million or 7% of worldwide annual turnover for prohibited AI practices under Art. 5; for SMEs the lower amount applies)

Responsibilities in the DACH region (as at 17 August 2026) — the following overview names the bodies that deal with the subject matter in each case; the formally designated market surveillance authority under Art. 70 AI Act has been the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) in Germany since 29 July 2026 (§ 2(1) of the German AI Market Surveillance and Innovation Promotion Act (KI-MIG)), unless sectoral authorities are competent, while Austria had made no designation as at 17 August 2026 — the AI service desk of RTR is an information and advisory body there without supervisory powers:

Germany: Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur, BNetzA) under § 2(1) KI-MIG, Federal Commissioner for Data Protection (BfDI) (for data protection aspects), BaFin (for financial AI)
Austria: AI service desk of RTR (information and advice), Austrian Data Protection Authority (Datenschutzbehörde, DSB) for the Annex III areas of law enforcement, border management, justice and democracy (Art. 74(8) AI Act)
Switzerland: no EU AI Act, but FINMA and Bakom for sector-specific AI

Practical example

Complaint to the BNetzA: an HR AI tool discriminates against women aged 50+. The BNetzA requests training data and bias tests. The provider must remedy the situation or face a market ban.

Frequently asked questions

Who can lodge a complaint?

Any natural or legal person (Art. 85).

How long do proceedings take?

Art. 85 AI Act sets no time limit: complaints are handled in accordance with the procedures the market surveillance authorities have established for that purpose (Art. 85 AI Act in conjunction with Regulation (EU) 2019/1020). The duration therefore depends on the individual case and on the procedure of the competent authority.

Can I bring an action?

Yes, an action before the administrative courts against the decisions.